The hood structure of a vehicle plays a role in managing how energy is absorbed when there is contact between the vehicle and an object, such as an obstacle. During an impact event, a vehicle hood must absorb a significant amount of energy over a small area while precluding impact with a hard engine compartment component as the hood is pushed into the engine compartment. As modern vehicles are very densely packaged under the hood, various hard parts, such as a coolant cap and shock towers, are very close to the hood. Use of non-ferrous alloys in vehicle hoods, such as aluminum, that do not offer the ductility and stiffness of steel hoods but provide significant mass reduction and improved fuel economy, may require larger basin distances.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system that decreases the severity of impacts to vehicle hoods and other exterior parts or panels.